Regional Sports

Never fun being green

Optimism emanated in these parts since the Jets kicked off training camp and the good vibes extended to the preseason games. With a new head coach and a second-year quarterback, the Jets thought they would build something special. The fans brought in, too. Opportunity arose for the Jets to take over the town from the incompetent Giants.

Then, the regular season began. It started with the Jets taking a 17-16 season opener loss to the Buffalo Bills after blowing a 16-3 lead at home, and it continued with Jets quarterback Sam Darnold being diagnosed with mononucleosis last week that turned out to be a blow to the team. Darnold’s illness defeated the Jets days before their 23-3 loss to the media darling Cleveland Browns even started Monday night at MetLife Stadium in a sense they had no shot of winning that game without him.

Here’s the cold, hard truth about your New York Jets in 2019: They still stink.

It’s been more of the same for the last seven of eight seasons, which the Jets are stupid, unprepared and unresourceful all across the board.

Maybe we should have known better. We really should since the Jets have dealt with misfortune since Joe Namath led them to a championship in 1969. This is Jets’ life. Murphy’s Law applies to the Jets, and so we should know better to think anything was going to be different because Jets head coach Adam Gase and Darnold are here.

Gase is finding out what Joe Walton, Bruce Coslet, Pete Carroll, Rich Kotite, Bill Parcells (as successful as he was as Jets coach, he endured bad luck), Al Groh, Herman Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan and Todd Bowles found out that it isn’t easy being green. As in being a Jets head coach. It’s like being Lionized once an athlete or a head coach works for the Detroit Lions.

He coached the Jets for two games, and he must ask himself what he got himself into taking that job. He thought he would overcome Murphy’s Law since he knew he could win with Darnold. So much for that. His welcome to the Jets moment came in the season opener and Darnold getting the mono. To make things worse, he lost linebacker Avery Williamson for the season after tearing his ACL in the Jets’ preseason game against Atlanta along with Quincy Enunwa after suffering a neck injury, and C.J. Mosley did not play after he injured his groin late in the third quarter against the Bills along with Quinnen Williams after he injured his ankle.

It’s a nightmare he couldn’t make this up. Jets fans knew all too well, though. They lived it forever, and they still live it no matter the new stadium, new uniforms, new management, new head coach and new players. It’s the same old thing.

It’s two games in, and the season is over. We didn’t have to get past Halloween this season to know this season is over. The Jets will play the New England Patriots at Foxborough on Sunday, and after the bye week, they will play the Philadelphia Eagles on the road and the Dallas Cowboys and Patriots at home. Can Gase, Fireman Ed, Joe Benigno, Jets fans and the Jets say 0-6?

The Jets should get their first win against the tanking Miami Dolphins. By then, the schedule should favor them as they will face the inept Giants, perpetually inept Washington Redskins, hapless Oakland Raiders, rebuilding Cincinnati Bengals and tanking Dolphins (again).

Maybe they can salvage this season by getting to .500, but the Jets offered no evidence they can based on so many issues that took place in their second game of the season.

Their offensive line stinks. That’s a problem, and it took Jets quarterback Trevor Siemian out of the game on the fourth series in the second quarter when Myles Garrett hit him that had his left leg bent awkwardly. That line helped the Browns get four sacks in that game.

It was a problem last week when Darnold ran for his life because he was being in a position to get taken down. He couldn’t be in a position to make plays as a result. It should make the Jets wonder if they are better off that he does not play this season if the season turned out to be a lost cause. The last thing the Jets need is their franchise quarterback ending up like David Carr or Andrew Luck, whose careers were cut short since their respective teams couldn’t provide them a functional offensive line.

In a sense, Darnold having mono did him and the Jets a favor just watching this offensive line in the first two games of the season.

This became taxi squad quarterback Luke Falk’s cross to bear. He relieved Siemian under center in the second quarter, and he put on a competent performance by completing 20 of 25 passes for 198 yards. With the Jets trailing 16-3 to the Browns in the third quarter, he had a couple of opportunities to throw for a touchdown or get a first down, but he threw an incomplete pass to Robby Anderson, and Le’Veon Bell couldn’t find space to run for a first down or run to the end zone to score.

After that missed opportunity, Browns rising star quarterback Baker Mayfield threw deep to Odell Beckham Jr. for an 89-yard touchdown without any resistance by Marcus Maye, giving the Browns a 23-3 lead that had fans heading to the exits and fans at home to change the channel.

Beckham had 161 receiving yards, which was more than the entire Jets wide receiving core, which had 125.

The defense did not make plays all night, and the unit treated tackling as if it was optional.

Gase failed to put his team in a position to succeed. His playcalling is confusing. He does not know when to pass or run. Most of the time, his offense reflects dink-and-dunk than making a home run play from watching the season opener. How about with 1:45 to go at the end of the first half when Gase did not use timeouts to come up with offensive plays to score a touchdown with the Jets trailing 13-3? He decided to run out the clock and then have the team to punt, which gave the Browns a position to kick another field goal and enter halftime with a 16-3 lead.

Not only did Seimian leave the game with an injury, so did new Jet Demaryius Thomas and linebacker Jordan Jenkins. Oh, and Gase saw enough of inept Jets cornerback bust Trumaine Johnson that he benched him for most of the game until he played with 3:27 left in the game.

If that was not enough, Jamal Adams told WFAN’s Maggie Gray and Bart Scott that he was benched for the final five plays of the game after committing back-to-back penalties of offside and encroachment. This explains why he unfollowed the Jets team account on Instagram and removed the word “Jets” on his Twitter profile on Tuesday morning.

Yes, Gase and the Jets had a night to forget. He shouldn’t expect this nightmare to end as long as he is the Jets coach. The Jets indoctrinated him well about life as a Jets coach these last two weeks.

So this season starts with Darnold and now we have Falk starting at Gillette Stadium.

All that’s left now is Bill Belichick have his Patriots score 70 on the Jets on Sunday.

It sure isn’t easy being green.

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One Comment

  1. this is the same guy who was ECSTATIC when Gase took over the role. Fleming is right about adam gase being a phony. You should read his blogs and maybe learn a thing or two about journalism

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